Sustainable Livelihoods of Fishermen Households Headed by Women (Case Study in Riau Islands Province of Indonesia)
Abstract
The number of fishing households headed by women continues to show improvement in the last decade. In Riau Islands Province Indonesia, showed more than 80 % are coastal villages with most of the poor people, and more than 50 % of the poor are women who are vulnerable social economic will be head of household. This study focuses on five dimensions of livelihood assets to find the status of sustainability. The questionnaire survey addressed to 29 fishermen households headed by women from 300 fishermen households in the Malangrapat village. The results of this study highlight how the dimensions of personal leadership assets showed the main actors to influence the sustainable livelihoods in fishing households headed by women. Strengths of personal and leadership assets of women in the household could be an important factor to consider in agricultural development and fight against poverty in the rural areas, because by having good personal leadership they have a strong motivate to get out of poverty through women. This showed by the index of the personal and leadership assets dimensions of sustainable enough (60.34 and 71.93), while the other dimension does not show sustainability; social assets (26.87), human resources assets (27.59), financial assets (31.86), and physical assets (36.38).